Burroughs proposes changes to English offerings

In an effort to build college- and career-readiness skills in its students, Burroughs High School is proposing streamlining its senior-year English curriculum to better reflect adherence to the Common Core State Standards.

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By John V. Cianijciani@ridgecrestca.com

Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

By John V. Cianijciani@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Apr. 5, 2013 at 11:30 AM
Updated Apr 5, 2013 at 11:55 AM

By John V. Cianijciani@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Apr 5, 2013 at 11:30 AM
Updated Apr 5, 2013 at 11:55 AM

In an effort to build college- and career-readiness skills in its students, Burroughs High School is proposing streamlining its senior-year English curriculum to better reflect adherence to the Common Core State Standards.

“This is the latest iteration of a total transformation of the department over the past four years,” said Principal Dave Ostash.

He said the English Department worked together to offer only ninth- and 10th-grade college-preparatory English.

“English is the first of the four core departments to move that way,” he said. “There are many reasons we went that way. One of the reasons is we wanted to focus on improving the percentage of Burroughs students completing the A through G requirements for California State University and the University of California.”

Ostash said other departments started changing their pathways as well, but 11th and 12th grade remained status quo with what we had for many years.

“With Common Core coming, we’re looking at our total pathway for ninth through 12th, and we’re making sure our coursework aligns with Common Core requirements,” he said.

English Department Chair Susie Burgess said the traditional English class approach has been chronological.

“We start with Early-American English and end with modern English,” she said. “With Common Core, what they really want you to do is look at big questions so you can draw in social studies or you can draw in other coursework and really look at the world not chronologically, but the big ideas. We’re moving away from the chronological study to more thematic, interdisciplinary kinds of courses.”

She said the department met several times over the past year and looked at what is coming with Common Core and what it has been doing.

“In our conversations we realized that we had a gap between what we wanted to teach our kids and the limitations that we’ve seen in our current curriculum,” Burgess said. “Common Core has really given us the opportunity to think about what we’ve been doing and figure out where we could grow our program.”

Ostash said the proposal removes all the non-college-preparatory course offerings and replaces them with college-preparatory courses.

Burroughs’ current college-preparatory courses are Early English Literature, Modern English, Shakespeare, Greek Literature and The Essay, from which students choose two.

The school also offers non-college-preparatory General Literature and Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition.

Burroughs officials are proposing a choice for the fall semester of English Literature, which is a cross-genre exploration of big ideas in English literature drawing from Early, Modern and Shakespeare curricula, or World Literature, which is a cross-genre exploration of big ideas in world literature drawing from Early English, Modern English, Greek literature and underutilized texts such as “Cyrano,” “The Stranger” and “In the Time of the Butterflies.”

Page 2 of 2 - Proposed for the spring semester is a choice of The Essay or Introductory Composition.

The Essay is a semester-long study of expository, analytical and argumentative reading and writing to help students develop the academic literacy skills necessary for success in college and in the world of work.

Introductory Composition is a dual-enrollment course with Cerro Coso Community College to prepare students to take transfer-level courses and enter the job market. Students write four to six short expository and argumentative essays and a 1,000- to 1,250-word research paper with a central controlling idea, coherent development to a reasoned conclusion as well as correct sentence structure, punctuation and spelling. The proposed course also emphasizes properly acknowledging and documenting outside sources.

“This is an exciting addition to our course offerings,” said Ostash. “This represents a partnership with Cerro Coso Community College. This is the dual-credit course. When the students complete this class, they receive five units of high-school credit and four units of college credit for English 70.”

Burgess said it will allow students to take the freshman English transfer-credit class.

“They’re not going to be behind. They’re not going have to start with remedial English,” she said. “This follows the same curriculum that is taught at the college.”

Burroughs also proposes replacing the non-college-preparatory General Literature course with the yearlong college-preparatory Expository Reading and Writing course. The proposed course is a study of expository, analytical and argumentative reading and writing to help students develop the academic literacy skills necessary to succeed in college and work.

“General literature was, in recent years, a chronological study of British literature,” Burgess said. “For our students who needed additional support, they were taking more time to go through that literature. This information is much more. It’s high interest. It’s real-world issues that I think they’re going to respond to more, be we could work on the fundamental writing skills. Even though it’s a college-prep course, it’s real-world thinking and writing skills that will prepare them whether they’re going to college or a different path. It’s all about keeping as many doors open as possible.”

Advanced-placement students would have a choice of AP English Literature or AP Language and Composition.

“This is a giant leap as far as transforming our department and really aligning the department with the contemporary educational landscape,” Ostash said.

Burgess said the current curriculum is what the teachers like, but the proposed curriculum is what the students need.

“Our students will benefit from this model more,” she said.

The proposal is scheduled to go to the Sierra Sands Unified School Board of Education at its April 18 meeting. If approved the new courses will begin in the 2013-14 school year.